Who is your first employer?

28 January 2020

To advance your career there is one skill you must have.  Can you guess what it is?

It is a skill most people do not want to have.
It is a skill with a bad reputation.
It is a skill most people are quite poor at.
It is the skill of marketing yourself.

If you are unable to highlight the assets of you, in a way that others want to buy what you have to offer, then career prospects start diminishing.

The process of marketing yourself is not reserved to job selection processes (applications, interviews etc.).  It is something you need to do all the time.

It happens in the way you talk about your involvement on a project.
It happens in the way you contribute when you don’t have to.
It happens in the way you seek to improve yourself and invest in your own learning.
It happens in the way you seek mentors and how you sponsor others.
It happens in the habits you have to work on your career not just in your career.
It happens in the way you create upward spirals of positive contagion in those around you.
It happens in the way to present as a professional by doing the hard work to be prepared.
It happens in the way you take the perspective of others into account.
It happens in the 101 little ways you show up with courage and persistence.
Most importantly of all, it happens in the way you talk to yourself about yourself.  

The crux of it is that you are your first employer.  

You are the most important person to convince that you have the skills, experience, knowledge, attributes and potential to make a difference.  This is the real skill you need to have to advance your career. Believe that your corner of the world will be more productive, joyful, creative, solution focused, and resilient because you advance your career.  After that convincing other employers becomes much easier.

As always wishing you a flourishing career.

Katherine